Peace Corps Journals / Guinea / all updates

Togo higlights Tatas waterfalls and wagash

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:16:28 +0800

(Guinea / Travel Blog | rosekanasty)
PCV Meghann and I left Ouaga on the 14th and traveled to Dapaong in northern Togo. We arrived in early afternoon and went to the PC house. We were welcomed by Kyan a volunteer from my stage in Guine ...
10 reads

Revisionist History

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:05:00 +0800

(Guinea / Metaphors and Lies)
This started out as an essay on my experiences in leadership for the Honors College application at WCU but quickly jumped the rails of the question and grew to 50% more than the word count limit.&nbs ...
4 reads

Exorcisms and Afterthoughts

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:34:00 +0800

(Guinea / YOLO in Guinea. And Botswana.)
Botswana is a predominantly Christian nation. There are a multitude of churches (ranging from conservative white-clad ladies to a more extreme sect that drinks gallons of a coffee-oil-sugar mixture to ...
7 reads

Past few Weeks...

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:07:00 +0800

(Guinea / Sajay [Was] In Guinea [Now in Zambia])
Ok lots of pictures... so this is how I am going to work this. I will just number groups of pictures and explain them in the next blog post. otherwise this will get rediculously long. 1.) 2.)3.)4.)5.)6.)7.)8.)&n bsp;9.)
9 reads

Sweet Emotion

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:58:00 +0800

(Guinea / Metaphors and Lies)
I've been having a really great week so far and I was just mentioning so on Twitter when I found that I couldn't complete the tweet:"This week has been awesome despite some sad moments. Allthetime h ...
5 reads

Marketing in Markets radio stations bo ...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:43:00 +0800

(Guinea / Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End)
Yesterday my boss asked me what we were going to do for the day. I know in america your boss rairly asks you what you want to do and more tells you what to do but here i have a unique situation. I ...
7 reads

got my stuff back from Africa

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:05:00 +0800

(Guinea / Peace out!)
About an hour ago I heard a knock at the door and I opened it to find a huge box sitting on the doorstep and a FedEx lady walking away. I knew immediately what it was: my long-awaited box of stuff I ...
10 reads

International Women's Day

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:27:00 +0800

(Guinea / Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End)
Most of you may not realize that March 8th is International Women’s Day. I had never heard of it until Africa so don’t feel too bad if you had never heard of it either. Last year my small Guine ...
9 reads

[Guinean news] Presidential election set ...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:58:00 +0800

(Guinea / News from Guinea and Friends of Guinea)
Yesterday acting head of state Gen. Sékouba Konaté signed a decree setting June 27 as the date for the first round of the presidential election. The decree fixed July 18 as the run off date if no ...
5 reads

[Guinea news] US State Dept. statement

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:57:00 +0800

(Guinea / News from Guinea and Friends of Guinea)
The US State Department issued the following the statement regarding the transitional government in Guinea:The United States welcomes Prime Minister Jean-Marie Dore’s appointment of a transition gov ...
8 reads

What I Do

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:40:00 +0800

(Guinea / Now Under the Burkinabe Sun)
See http://picasaweb.google.com/jaba rbour/EnrichedBouillePictures# for pictures.In collaboration with my partner organization I have helped them develop a social enterprise focusing on combating maln ...
12 reads

Dreadlocks and Kidnappings.

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 13:50:00 +0800

(Guinea / YOLO in Guinea. And Botswana.)
So I've wanted dreads for two years.Working at a law firm? No way.Peace Corps? Thought it was my shot until I found myself in a conservative Muslim society in Guinea. No dreads.Peace Corps round 2 in ...
66 reads

Inspiration

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:38:00 +0800

(Guinea / Kata Por El Mundo)
I feel like I haven't written on here in a while. Why is that? I've been waiting for inspiration. For a strike of lightening to make my fingers flow and beat along the keyboard. However with my recen ...
8 reads

but hey...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:21:00 +0800

(Guinea / Peace out!)
I got my letter in the mail confirming my dental clearance! And I didn't even have to do anything this time...As for medical clearance I guess it's processing now that a huge error in communication has been corrected. I won't even go into it because the past is past and the future is now!
9 reads

It is a hideous shade of green.

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:28:00 +0800

(Guinea / Metaphors and Lies)
It is a hideous shade of green.It is soft comfortable and solitary. I know I will find solace in its curves. I know its contours and its secrets – its quirks.My chair…is fantastic. “Fantas ...
8 reads

I wrote this a year ago

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 22:15:00 +0800

(Guinea / Metaphors and Lies)
The Meaning of MeaningWhat does it mean to search for meaning? Does it imply that meaning must be certainly present and simply needs to be revealed? Or is it that meaning has been lost and needs to ...
8 reads

A Marriage Proposal?

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:20:23 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
I deal with offers for someone to find me a Nigerienne wife on a nearly daily basis and you may remember that in Guinea there was a bit of culture shock over my teenage neighbors bathing in front of my house but I yesterday I ran into the what might have been the most forward [...]
2 reads

Libros!

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 04:16:00 +0800

(Guinea / Guineagogy)
The sidebar was getting cluttered so I decided to move the book list to its own blog entry and just link it:Books read since the start of Peace Corps service (most recent first):11) The World Without ...
11 reads

[Advocacy news] Alliance Guinea to meet ...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:41:00 +0800

(Guinea / News from Guinea and Friends of Guinea)
I received the following message from our colleagues at the advocacy group Alliance Guinea:We have been invited by the State Department to a special briefing for representatives of Nongovernmental Or ...
8 reads

Arrival

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:05:00 +0800

(Guinea / Guineagogy)
I arrived in San Jose after a day of training in D.C. More on both events later. For now here's the new address. This may change in the future. If so I'll update the link on the left.Kevin Roche ...
5 reads

Things Are Happening

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:02:01 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
I’ve said this before but Peace Corps life is full of some amazing ups and some very difficult lows. Today in fact this whole week but especially today has been one of those amazing ups. To ...
0 reads

Hells Angel

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 04:54:00 +0800

(Guinea / candeeramos)
I had to put my beloved cat Harley to sleep last week. What a lousy experience. For anyone who has ever had to do this am I alone in thinking 'is this the right thing to do?' I am pretty sure that ...
4 reads

Ya Visto (Déjà Vu)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:24:00 +0800

(Guinea / Guineagogy)
Welcome to the standard Peace Corps entry starter: this thing should have been updated five times by now. Being home again for a month gave plenty of opportunity to share Peru stories by word-of-mou ...
5 reads

Morocco We're not in Africa anymore

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:56:36 +0800

(Guinea / Travel Blog | rosekanasty)
Well I finally had to say goodbye to Ouagadougou on the 4th. I had a great time hanging out at the restaurants and clubs on Kwame N'Kruma Avenue with a big group of PCVs until my 3 am flight. Stepha ...
27 reads

Festival Sur le Niger

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 12:56:00 +0800

(Guinea / Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End)
A boat race on the Niger riverAn African puppet dancerThis man came down from Timbuktu for the festival. He danced and sang traditional Malian songs for the crowd.A dance in the middle of the festiva ...
15 reads

W.A.I.S.T 2010

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:33:00 +0800

(Guinea / Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End)
Every year in February the expat (ex patriots otherwise known as Americans living over seas) community of Dakar Senegal host a soft ball tournament for the American community living in West Africa. I ...
6 reads

Medical Clearance: here we go again...

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:15:00 +0800

(Guinea / Peace out!)
Due to some kind of error in the Medical Office my medical clearance hasn't even begun yet (it should have started a month ago) and I would need to be cleared by now in order to leave in April for th ...
0 reads

A Bizarre Collection

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 13:57:27 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
At my last post we were still on restricted movement because of the coup. Since then I have travelled back to site and have been here for several days. And while I hve had to travel to the market and to Niamey to see the doctor and so it hasn’t been the most [...]
0 reads

Completely not self-explanatory

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:26:00 +0800

(Guinea / En Afrique)
Africa is the futureOriginally uploaded by lomamaestro
7 reads

America is relative

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:40:00 +0800

(Guinea / En Afrique)
So Dakar the capital of Senegal is like America. You can find pretty much any food there are beautiful beaches you can even go to a ice cream place that is remarkably like cold stone.One day I wa ...
8 reads

Another crazy day in West Africa

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:59:00 +0800

(Guinea / En Afrique)
So I seem to be in the mood for writing stories about transportation...so let me tell you about trying to get out of Bamako the other day.I intended to leave on Monday to go up to Segou pick up some ...
6 reads

Vacation photos

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:48:00 +0800

(Guinea / Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginnings End)
So I took a little week long vacation to Dakar Senegal here are some photos and expect a few blog enteries about all the good times to come!Gorez Island from the boatA painter on Gorez IslandThe door ...
15 reads

House

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:13:00 +0800

(Guinea / En Afrique)
So I forgot to mention another thing that took up a lot of time this week: finishing my house. My counterpart Fakoro and I built (finally!) a hanger and then a place to put my hammock. The hanger d ...
5 reads

The Never Ending Bus ride

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:20:00 +0800

(Guinea / En Afrique)
So I'm going to start with the end a bit: my ride back from Dakar to Bamako. The way there took a relatively average 25 hours despite two breakdowns and an issue with stolen passports and money (not ...
2 reads

Heading Back

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:40:03 +0800

(Guinea / Travel Blog | Skyfire24x)
After three weeks and four cities I'm headed back to Guinea. Of course there are a few speed bumps and pit stops along the way. When I got to the airport they told me I was two days late for my flig ...
5 reads

Long time no post.

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 16:34:00 +0800

(Guinea / En Afrique)
So I know it's been awhile since I posted and a lot has happened to update on. I'm going to get a bunch of updates up now but I'll tell them in the order most interesting to me which isn't necessari ...
7 reads

Holidays in Ghana Beaches Sea Turtles Rainforests

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:41:09 +0800

(Guinea / Travel Blog | rosekanasty)
After several months of landlocked dustiness almost every Burkina PCV makes his pilgrimage to that dreamy Anglophone coast where rivers flow yearround and the trees are always green Ghana. Land of de ...
10 reads

Elmina and Cape Coast slave castles

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:40:18 +0800

(Guinea / Travel Blog | rosekanasty)
Elmina and Cape Coast are two coastal cities that served as ports in colonial times and their 15thcentury castles still stand. Their histories are hideous. Elmina castle was built in 1482 by the Port ...
26 reads

Hi I'm Candee.

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:05:00 +0800

(Guinea / candeeramos)
Typically as one gets older she becomes less concerned with subjects that as an adolescent really bothered her such as how tall she is her shoe size width of her nose etc. While I do find that I ...
7 reads

Bring On The Heat

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:34:22 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
The Niger I envisioned before I came here has suddenly arrived. The heat only wanes but never truly leaves. Mornings are slightly cooler but by the afternoon everyone who is out is wandering somew ...
6 reads

Milk is Going to Taste Funny

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:40:59 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
I realized the other day that I don’t know what milk tastes like anymore. I mean I have a general sense. I eat enough powdered milk deliciousness to know what that tastes like. But in fact that has become what milk tastes like but probably good old 2% in the states doesn’t [...]
8 reads

'Evacuation' sounds a lot cooler than it is.

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:00:31 +0800

(Guinea / Travel Blog | Skyfire24x)
The following are exerts of emails that I sent out during my time in Mali.October 9 2009Ok so here's the deal. Yesterday I left Guinea. We can't say we were evacuated but that's what happened. I'm c ...
19 reads

I've Started a New Blog

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:45:00 +0800

(Guinea / Jeneca in Guinea)
Hey folks if your looking for my blog I've updated my address to http://820days.blogspot.com/ follow me as I embark on a new adventure to Cameroon
3 reads

A Reflection on Uncertainty and Insecurity

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:24:14 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
I remember when I first joined Peace Corps hoping that it would give me a respite from the feelings of uneasiness that at the end of my service I would have faced some of the most uncomfortable and c ...
9 reads

Some more pictures...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:58:00 +0800

(Guinea / Sajay [Was] In Guinea [Now in Zambia])
So this is the sign going into my little village. Pretty fancy huh? just wait till you see the back...nice huh? so polite!This is the dirt road I ride on to get into the Provincial capital. Here are ...
39 reads

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:01:00 +0800

(Guinea / Kata Por El Mundo)
From my hubby! Sent: to my job... When? TODAY! Who: EVERYONE asked! who are they from?!?
10 reads

One Year Update and Staph Infection Recap

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:34:19 +0800

(Guinea / zot in guinea... oops! in niger)
Believe it or not I am still in the capital with medical problems. Nothing is threatening and it seems like we are just trying to mop up the pieces but I am frustrated to not be back at site (its been almost a month!) and nearly all the other volunteers have left so not [...]
22 reads

And the work begins... Community Chiaj

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 23:10:00 +0800

(Guinea / Peace Corps - Guatemala)
The picture was literally taken from on top of a cliff. We had to climb down cross that little plank you see there and then climb up another steep mountain to reach some of these homes. Chiaj hom ...
5 reads

The BIG Town Fair

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:32:00 +0800

(Guinea / Peace Corps - Guatemala)
Valerie my sitemate and I enjoying the parade from the stands. The town gathering in the soccer field. Reflextion from Val's sweet camera. The beginning of the prosession somewhere in that first g ...
6 reads

Did You Know?

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:22:00 +0800

(Guinea / Kata Por El Mundo)
Did know you know that I caused myself:-> To display seasonal allergy symptoms-> To need glasses from a very early ageAll the above. True. From a very early age I noticed I was one of those children w ...
8 reads